FWE High Noon (2017)
FWE High Noon (2017) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event and produced by Fiction Wrestling Entertainment for the Blitzkrieg and RiseUp! brands. It took place on May 28th, at the Kyle Field in Austin, Texas. The event's main event, and most important match, was the 30th annual Showdown at Sundown. Background The card featured eight matches, five of which had FWE titles on the line. As is tradition, the card was highlighted by the High Noon Rumble, this year featuring 40 wrestlers, which earned the winner a main event match at CrashDay XIV for either the World Heavyweight Championship or the FWE Championship. Event Preliminary matches The pay-per-view opened with Black Mage defending the FWE Intercontinental Championship against challenger Saxton Hale, succesfully retaining the belt by breaking free an attempted ''Mann Cutter, ''kicking Hale and causing him to fall into a Tree of Woe position before using his very own Double Foot Stomp against him to win through pinfall. In the second match, The Trinity (Emao III and Vlad) challenged The Creatures (James Wilson and Aleks Merchant) for the FWE Tag Team Championship. The climax saw Emao tag himself in, saving his team from defeat when Wilson hit the ''Colorado Cutter ''on Vlad for the 3-count. Taking advantage of the ensuing argument between Wilson and the referee, Emao hopped back into the ring and hit the ''Fall of Heaven ''to win the match and the FWE Tag Team Championship. Following that up, Applejack defended the FWE Television Championship against El Presidente (accompanied by Penultimo)in the Blitzkrieg roster's first match of the night. The closing moments had Applejack ready to deliver the Stump Puller, before Penultimo hopped onto the apron only to get hit by a Superkick. This, however, allowed El Presidente to regroup his bearings, block a Superkick attempt from Applejack immediately afterwards, and lock her into the Ankle Lock for the submission victory, becoming the new FWE Television Champion in the process. Afterwards, El Presidente refused to release the submission hold, until Applejack's ankle snapped, at which point the new champion finally let go. The fourth match saw the member of FWE's branch of the Rookie Revolution Big Bandit take on Homer Simpson, with the former trying to quickly win the match by ambushing the latter during his entrance with a steel chair, but failing to, only obtaining a 3-count. The climax saw Bandit knock Simpson down with a Backfist To The Future, before locking in the Bandit Deathlock to make him tap out. Afterwards, FWE World Heavyweight Champion Capricorn defended his belt against challenger Rarity. The match concluded when Rarity reversed a Tidal Wave and placed Capricorn into position for the Diamond Clash, only to climb up to the top turnbuckle with Capricorn held in place. This allowed Capricorn to break free and reverse the attempted maneuver into his own Delta Capricorni DDT off the top turnbuckle to win the match and retain the World Heavyweight Championship. Between the two matches for each brand's respective top championship, Slick faced "Milan" Marcello Ricci in a simple Singles Match, with Ricci tapping out to Slick's Figure-Four Leglock. The seventh match of the night featured FWE Champion James Rolfe face fellow Internet icon PewDiePie in a Falls County Anywhere Match. The match quickly spilled to the outside of the ring, making its' way to the backstage before returning to the stage. The climax saw Rolfe duck a Bro Fist from the challenger, before dragging him off the stage and driving him through two tables with a Fameasser, obtaining the winning pinfall by landing on top of him. Main event The main event was the High Noon Rumble match, expanded for the first time to forty wrestlers this year, with a main event match for a world championship of their choosing for the winner. Blitzkrieg's Tommy Vercetti started the match at number one, followed by RiseUp!'s Wolf at number two. The match saw the surprise return of Jack Cayman as a free agent at #16, as well as the surprise debut of FTR (FWE's developmental roster) and former indy star Alex Taylor at #21. The final four were Wildcard (#7), Flash Man (#31), Magic Man (#36) and "Herr" Frederick Von Twirlenkiller (#37, also the one who scored the most eliminations at 10). Magic Man tried to attack Frederick head-on, only to see a Superkick attempt reversed into Twirlenkiller's Callahan and be eliminated. Twirlenkiller then tried to eliminated both Wildcard and Flash Man with a Double Chokeslam, only for the two to break free, land on the apron, and drag Frederick onto the top rope from their position, before managing to flip him over and out of the ring. Following his elimination, WIldcard and Flash Man wrestled an additional ten minutes, hitting their respective finishers but failing to eliminate each other, before Wildcard reversed Flash Man's attempt to throw him out of the ring and grabbed him by the back, launching over the top rope and beyond the apron to win the match and earn the main event match of CrashDay XIV for a world championship of his choosing. Aftermath Blitzkrieg On the Blitzkrieg after the pay-per-view, Metal Man became the new number one contender to the FWE Championship, defeating Tommy Vercetti, Diablo and Texas in a Fatal 4-Way to claim the position in the rankings. El Presidente, during his live celebration, threw the Television Championship in the garbage and reactivated the European Championship, with Aries becoming the number one contender in another Fatal 4-Way, who also featured Slick. Wildcard, instead, confided to a cameoing Squid Adler that he had no idea what to do, before defeating "Milan" Marcello Ricci in a relatively one-sided matched and deciding he'd take his time and announce his choice at No Way Out. Starting from this edition, the FWE decided to retroactively rename the headlining match to "Showdown at Sundown", in an effort to distance themselves from other wrestling companies and better stand out on their own. RiseUp! On RiseUp!, Skull Man made his long-awaited return and challenged Capricorn for the World Heavyweight Championship, only for Magic Man, Flash Man, Twilight Sparkle and Killbane to throw their respective challenge at the champion as well. This made General Manager James May organize a first-of-its-kind Heart of Darkness match for No Way Out. Black Mage, in the meantime, didn't have time to cementify his position on top of the mid-card, as Jack Cayman's official return to the brand shook things up. The two immediately began feuding, with Cayman costing Black Mage a match by striking him with his own championship to restart hostilities. The Creatures, after having apparently fixed problems within the group, immediately decided to try to reclaim the FWE Tag Team Championship they lost to The Trinity, this time with the tag team of Dexter Manning and James Wilson facing the self-proclaimed "Saints of Wrestling". Reception The event received enthusiastic, positive reviews from the industry's critics, continuing a trend that started with the reboot. The show received a little over 670,000 televisions tuned in worldwide, grossing up to $10 million (with around $765,000 from gate receipts, 135,000 from merchandise and concession stands, and around $9 million from pay-per-view buys) . Olmo Ghesizzi of ''The Mediterrenean ''praised the match World Heavyweight Championship, defining it as "incredibly enjoyable and fluid" and using it as further proof of Capricorn's ability almost 15 years after his debut, and the High Noon Rumble match, which was the Match of The Night, "proof that few understand how multi-men matches work as much as FWE, especially when the match ''should ''look like more of a football fans' brawl and ''should ''look like a sloppy mess. Two things that the High Noon Rumble, as always, absolutely wasn't." In general, the highest grades went to Rarity vs. Capricorn (A-) and the High Noon Rumble match (A+). Big Bandit vs. Homer Simpson received, surprisingly enough, a B-, with many declaring that "as short as it was, it showed that Homer could still go and that Big Bandit will be big in the future. It hit all the right buttons without exposing Bandit's lack of experience." The other matches received grades that were between B+ and B-, while the lowest rated match was PewDiePie vs. The Angry Video Game Nerd, which received a C+, being criticized as being a violent spot galore that ended up being wasted potential for a match between two Internet culture icons. At the Fiction Wrestling Awards of 2016, the High Noon Rumble match netted FWE the one-of-a-kind, one-year only "Rumble Of The Year" Award. Results Showdown at Sundown match entrances and eliminations a. ^ Lil' Hunter was supposed to come out as the #26 entrant, but an ambush in the backstage area kept him from competing. Italy, who was later revealed as the assailant, took his place in the match. Category:FWE Pay-Per-Views Category:Fictional Wrestling PPV's